Down pattern is not as reliable in reds as in silver greys. It depends on their lineage. When it works, they have the same down coloring differences as the silver greys -- the females have a thicker, well demarcated "stripe" on the top of their head compared to the males. There are also some differences in the stripes near the eyes. There were pictures and explanations on this thread recently, within the last 10-20 pages. Also, if you go to feathersite.com and then go to the Dorking page, there are pictures of male vs. female SG chicks. Last year I had 13 reds. Using the SG guidelines, I correctly predicted all 7 of the pullets and 4 of the cockerels, but 2 of the cockerels had pullet patterns, so for my group it was just under 85% accurate.
Once they start to feather out, the breast feathers in the males are black and in the females are light to dark salmon, IF they have proper color patterns. (One of my cockerels last year had the down pattern of a pullet, and had more salmon than black breast feathers. To top it off, his comb was half way between the other cockerels and pullets in size, and didn't stand up until he was 6 months old -- it flopped over like a hen's. And he was small compared to the other cockerels -- pullet sized. He truly kept me guessing until he crowed. But in the end he tasted just as good as the better cockerel culls!)
